Vanguard News Network
VNN Media
VNN Digital Library
VNN Reader Mail
VNN Broadcasts

Old August 10th, 2013 #141
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

tracking baby pine snakes

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/track...kes-6C10868300
 
Old August 10th, 2013 #142
N.B. Forrest
Senior Member
 
N.B. Forrest's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Virginia, CSA
Posts: 11,145
Default

I don't get the point of the child killings in the first place. The snake didn't eat them. Do they kill just for the hell of it? Do they attempt to kill automatically, intending to eat, but pinch off more than they can chew?
__________________
"First: Do No Good." - The Hymiecratic Oath

"The man who does not exercise the first law of nature—that of self preservation — is not worthy of living and breathing the breath of life." - John Wesley Hardin
 
Old August 10th, 2013 #143
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by N.B. Forrest View Post
I don't get the point of the child killings in the first place: the snakes didn't eat them. Do the kill just for the hell of it?
I don't know. It's a bizarre story, and apparently causing quite a tizzy in Canada.

So...this 100-lb snake comes crashing down through the ceiling in the middle of the night...then, collects itself, staggers to its feet, grabs a sleeping-kiddie throat in each hand, and squeezes out a couple winners.



I don't get it either. They are still posting stories on this. One said the kids were playing with farm animals earlier in day, so maybe they had smell on them. I would think they washed up before bed, but...

You know, since it's "reporting" we can be sure we'll never get any actual facts, like how did the snake

1) not wake them up when it came through the ceiling

2) how did it kill one without waking the other

3) why didn't it eat or attempt to eat either one?

I guess it's possible the snake was so upset and frightened by falling through the ceiling it attacked the sleeping kids.

The scenario as presented in the reports I've read doesn't really make sense. It's possible the snake did try to eat one of the kids, and they don't want to say this. But they do talk about autopsies/necrosy, so that doesn't make sense either.
 
Old August 10th, 2013 #144
N.B. Forrest
Senior Member
 
N.B. Forrest's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Virginia, CSA
Posts: 11,145
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
I don't know. It's a bizarre story, and apparently causing quite a tizzy in Canada.

So...this 100-lb snake comes crashing down through the ceiling in the middle of the night...then, collects itself, staggers to its feet, grabs a sleeping-kiddie throat in each hand, and squeezes out a couple winners.



I don't get it either. They are still posting stories on this. One said the kids were playing with farm animals earlier in day, so maybe they had smell on them. I would think they washed up before bed, but...

You know, since it's "reporting" we can be sure we'll never get any actual facts, like how did the snake

1) not wake them up when it came through the ceiling

2) how did it kill one without waking the other

3) why didn't it eat or attempt to eat either one?

I guess it's possible the snake was so upset and frightened by falling through the ceiling it attacked the sleeping kids.

The scenario as presented in the reports I've read doesn't really make sense. It's possible the snake did try to eat one of the kids, and they don't want to say this. But they do talk about autopsies/necrosy, so that doesn't make sense either.
You can't get any sense out of these shits. Either they're covering up facts in pushing the jewline, or they're covering up facts because they're "too gruesome" and are likely to "traumatize the family".....
__________________
"First: Do No Good." - The Hymiecratic Oath

"The man who does not exercise the first law of nature—that of self preservation — is not worthy of living and breathing the breath of life." - John Wesley Hardin
 
Old August 10th, 2013 #145
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by N.B. Forrest View Post
You can't get any sense out of these shits. Either they're covering up facts in pushing the jewline, or they're covering up facts because they're "too gruesome" and are likely to "traumatize the family".....
Here's the Daily Mail. Of course, DM is famous for lying, be it imaginary German atrocities or whatever.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...urn-vigil.html

I see this press problem as a version or variation of the problem Anglo-Saxons have with sex and nudity. These are not problems on the continent, but they are huge problems in Anglo-Saxon culture. I think their inability to cover anything simply and honestly is related to this, or possibly even the same thing, psychologically.

The thing about German society is the calmness. There's a certain bluntness, matter-of-factness that can be almost shocking if you're from a different culture. But, damn, I think it's better. You never get anything in America or Britain that isn't coated.

Just tell the reader the fucking facts first. You can moralize later. But you can never get this. Even in a story where there's no PC involved, like this one, or where it's at best a minor, you still can't get the thing straight.

I mean - fuck - you're a "reporter" - that means you're supposed to tell me WHAT HAPPENED?

How can a snake choke two kids without one of them waking up? Where were the parents sleeping?

But you know, hell, they didn't care enough to give the facts about how the WTC came down, so why would anyone care about the technics of a snake strangulation?

Last edited by Alex Linder; November 30th, 2013 at 03:26 PM.
 
Old August 10th, 2013 #146
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

Our opinion: Exotic snakes and deadly consequences
Posted: 08/09/2013 03:00:00 AM EDT

Friday August 9, 2013

The death of two young boys in New Brunswick, Canada, this week brings to light the dangers inherent in keeping certain types of exotic animals as pets.

The boys died from asphyxiation when a 100-pound African rock python escaped from its enclosure, slithered through a ventilation system and fell through the ceiling into the room where the boys were sleeping. They had been visiting the apartment of a friend whose father owned an exotic pet store on the floor below, although police said the 14-foot python had been kept inside the apartment. A snake expert said it was possible that the python was spooked and simply clung to whatever it landed on.

Exotic snakes have been a problem in this country as well, with sometimes dire consequences for humans and the environment. For example, pythons and boa constrictors are a major concern in south Florida and are typically found in the Everglades where they have been released by pet owners and allowed to reproduce unchecked.

A scientific survey published by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences last year showed that areas infested with the pythons and other constrictor snakes since they took hold about 15 years ago had found no rabbits, no foxes and a nearly 90 per cent drop-off in raccoons, opossums and bobcats. And in a case tragically similar to that of the two Canadian boys, a 2-year-old Florida girl died four years ago after being strangled by a pet python that escaped from its aquarium and attacked her in her crib.

Another exotic snake story emerged a little closer to home earlier this week. Police in Burlington reportedly found a 5-foot-long boa constrictor in the parking area at Leddy Park. Fortunately, animal experts from the Vermont Wildlife Refuge Center were contacted, and assisted in the capture of the snake before anyone was hurt.

Unlike the pythons, boa constrictors are not illegal in the United States.

In 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey recommended banning nine species of large constrictor snakes under the Lacey Act. In 2012, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service banned only four species -- Burmese pythons, northern and southern African rock pythons and yellow anacondas. The agency has yet to take action on reticulated pythons, green anacondas, DeSchauensee's anaconda, Beni anaconda and boa constrictors. By banning only four of the nine species, the trade simply shifts and does not solve the problem, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Boa constrictors, identified as "high risk" by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, have become established as an invasive species in more areas than any other boa or python species. They have colonized in Puerto Rico and pose serious threats to other states and territories, including Hawaii, where loose boa constrictors are being found with greater frequency.

In the U.S., a dozen people have been killed by African rock pythons, Burmese pythons, reticulated pythons and boa constrictors since 1990.

Based on those facts, and in light of the recent deaths in New Brunswick, the Humane Society is again urging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to immediately ban the import and interstate transport of those five additional large constrictor snake species for the pet trade.

"The tragic death of these two young children once again illustrates that these powerful wild animals belong in their native countries, not in private hands in the United States," Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the HSUS, said in a statement. "Private ownership of large constricting snakes almost never turns out well for these animals, it puts people at risk, and it threatens our natural resources and native wildlife species. The risks are just too great, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has already taken a positive step by banning the species involved in this tragedy, must act to curb this trafficking of this class of wild animals for the pet trade."

There have been too many cases of these snakes escaping from their enclosures, or being released into the wild when they got too big for their owners to handle. It's time to end the importation and sale of these exotic monsters before they wreak more havoc on the environment and kill more innocent children.

http://www.reformer.com/opinion/ci_2...y-consequences

Note: too bad christians brainwashed people into believing that humans are something radically distinct from the animal world - or they could easily see that the warnings above apply 100,000x more strongly to exotic human animals
 
Old August 10th, 2013 #147
N.B. Forrest
Senior Member
 
N.B. Forrest's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Virginia, CSA
Posts: 11,145
Default

Quote:
The owner of Little Ray's Zoo in Ottawa said snakes like the African Rock Python that killed the boys on Monday morning do not visually recognize their prey - but if the boys smelled like food, it could serve as a realistic explanation for the attack - which has left experts puzzled.

So they'll hit anything that smells like food?

Strange beasts....
__________________
"First: Do No Good." - The Hymiecratic Oath

"The man who does not exercise the first law of nature—that of self preservation — is not worthy of living and breathing the breath of life." - John Wesley Hardin
 
Old August 10th, 2013 #148
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by N.B. Forrest View Post
So they'll hit anything that smells like food?

Strange beasts....
Snakes have lousy vision - they can only see 3-4 feet, from what I've read.

It is true that they are primarily motivated by smell. When I was a kid in Californnia, I had two California kingsnakes. Ideal pets, small constrictors, would always eat, very docile. Normally I fed them mice. One time I fed them a small lizard I caught. One of them bit my finger, probably because it smelled the lizard on my finger and made a mistake.
 
Old August 19th, 2013 #149
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

 
Old August 19th, 2013 #150
N.B. Forrest
Senior Member
 
N.B. Forrest's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Virginia, CSA
Posts: 11,145
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
What the hell kinda death rope is that? The body looks huge like a constrictor, but the head is triangular like a viper....
__________________
"First: Do No Good." - The Hymiecratic Oath

"The man who does not exercise the first law of nature—that of self preservation — is not worthy of living and breathing the breath of life." - John Wesley Hardin
 
Old August 19th, 2013 #151
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by N.B. Forrest View Post
What the hell kinda death rope is that? The body looks huge like a constrictor, but the head is triangular like a viper....
That has to be an Eastern Diamondback, look at the rings by the tail, the head, and actually that's not a boa pattern on back. That is as big as anything gets in USA. One time I spent a couple weeks in the panhandle of Florida at a place for sportsmen who hunt boars under the pines; this place had some diamondback skins on the wall, and they were from snakes the size of the one in this photo. Just an astonishing span, widthwise. Nothing like that up north. You can find the odd six-foot ratsnake, but it's not even 1/4 as thick as this. This was just a photo on my Facebook, don't know who it is.

I have seen two of one of the rare snakes in USA actually longer than EDs, an Indigo snake. Both in Laguna Atascosa wildlife preserve near South Padre. I've been to that park probably 30x, and that was the only time I've seen indigos. Which feeds my theory that nature is a lot more clock-specific than one would think. Other examples: Pennsylvania: same day, I see three of the same type of spider which I havent seen at all that year. Third example: me and sister both, as kids, catch big catfish, about 6 lb apiece, on separate sides of a farm, when we're fishing for bluegill. It's obvious there are cycles in nature, but in my opinion they are much less loose than one would think. Almost eerily...

Last edited by Alex Linder; August 19th, 2013 at 07:08 PM.
 
Old August 19th, 2013 #152
N.B. Forrest
Senior Member
 
N.B. Forrest's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Virginia, CSA
Posts: 11,145
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
That has to be an Eastern Diamondback, look at the rings by the tail, the head, and actually that's not a boa pattern on back. That is as big as anything gets in USA. One time I spent a couple weeks in the panhandle of Florida at a place that had some skins of those things on the wall, and they were that big. Just awesome, there's nothing like that up north. This was just a photo on my Facebook, don't know who it is.
I knew they sometimes grew pretty large, but nothing like THAT....

Notice that he's got his snake boots on: no fool.
__________________
"First: Do No Good." - The Hymiecratic Oath

"The man who does not exercise the first law of nature—that of self preservation — is not worthy of living and breathing the breath of life." - John Wesley Hardin
 
Old October 1st, 2013 #153
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

http://www.khon2.com/2013/09/30/snak...-pali-highway/

Boa run over in Hawaii, where it is illegal to possess snakes.
 
Old October 1st, 2013 #154
Jae Manzel
...
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 1,066
Question Python regurgitate fully grown dog?

Quote:
Don't know the authenticity of this video, but it made the news! WARNING: This stuff is nasty and stomach-turning!
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kajtimar View Post
The rest of you are nothing more than a livestock – you were created for us: to serve in that or the other way.
 
Old November 8th, 2013 #155
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

Super-snake ahead! Warming makes mammals smaller, reptiles bigger
Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Nov. 5, 2013 at 6:52 PM ET

Jason Bourque / University of Florida


An artist’s conception shows how the largest snake the world has ever known would have looked in its natural setting 60 million years ago. Partial skeletons of the giant, boa-constrictor-like snake named “Titanoboa” were found in Colombia. (I guarantee you there is a Sy-Fy movie "Titanoboa" already in the works.)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Tens of millions of years ago, snakes were as big as horses. Horses were almost as small as snakes. And in a warmer world, it could get that way again. (Yeah, right. Just bs to promote global warming scam.)

That's the implication of research showing that warmer temperatures generally favor smaller mammals and larger reptiles.

"You see the size of these animals dancing with the climate," said Jonathan Bloch, a paleontologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Bloch delved into the connection between body size and global temperatures, particularly during a hot time known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, on Monday during the ScienceWriters2013 conference here in Gainesville. Like so many facets of global change, the lessons from the distant past don't make the far future look all that sunny. Super-snakes, anyone?

Some like it hot

For years, Bloch and his colleagues have traced the ups and downs of the Paleocene Epoch, which lasted from the downfall of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the start of the Eocene about 56 million years ago. One of the key sites for fossils from that age is the Cerrejon Mine in Colombia, where the coal seams are so active they can spontaneously combust.

"It really is like hell, but it's heaven for fossils," Bloch said.

That's where Bloch found evidence of 60 million-year-old turtles as big as breakfast tables, and a snake called Titanoboa that was as long as a bus. Pointing toward the entryway at the back of the hall, Bloch said, "Imagine that the snake would have to squeeze through the door, and come up to your waist."

Snakes, turtles and other reptiles tend to depend on the environment to regulate their heat — putting them in a category known as ectotherms. ("Cold-blooded" is a commonly used term, though it's a bit of a misnomer.) The only way ancient ectotherms could get as big as they did would be for them to live in a hot climate, and the world was indeed much hotter during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

Experts estimate that global temperatures jumped somewhere in the range of 9 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 8 degrees Celsius), due to a massive but mysterious release of greenhouse gases. Titanoboa, for example, thrived amid temperatures as hot as 93 degrees F (34 degrees C).

Danielle Byerley / Florida Museum of Natural History
A modern-day horse looms like a monster over the earliest known horse, Sifrhippus (at right), in this illustration.

Mini-mammals
Paleontologists have also studied how mammals fared back in the Paleocene-Eocene. Last year, Bloch and other researchers said the ancestors of modern-day horses shrunk to the size of housecats when temperatures spiked 55 million years ago. This month, a different team reported that another episode of mammalian dwarfism occurred during a second warming event 2 million years later.

"The fact that it happened twice significantly increases our confidence that we're seeing cause and effect, that one interesting response to global warming in the past was a substantial decrease in body size in mammalian species," the University of Michigan's Philip Gingerich, one of the paleontologists behind the latest study, said in a news release.

Several factors have been proposed for the mammalian downsizing: Research suggests that when temperatures rise into the mid-90s (35 degrees C) for an extended period, mammals have a harder time regulating body heat, and less nutrition is available from plant sources. Under those conditions, smaller mammals would fare better than bigger ones.

What lies ahead?

Here's the scary part: If it's happened before, it could happen again — and perhaps sooner than we think. Bloch noted that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are approaching what they were during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

"You have to go back tens of millions of years before you get close to or higher than what we're talking about for the next couple of hundred years," Bloch said.

Bloch hinted that he and his colleagues may soon be filling out the picture for the rise of mammals with more fossil finds. In any case, learning more about the hot times of the ancient past — and how they cooled off — could provide the key for coping with future climate change.

Somehow, our planet found a way to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide and its global warming effect. Perhaps humanity can take advantage of those same strategies — and if so, the record of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and its aftermath could serve as a "user's manual for Earth," Bloch said.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/super...ger-8C11535729
 
Old November 30th, 2013 #156
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

‘Python Eats Drunk Man in India’ a Hoax; Goes Viral Anyway
By Jack Phillips, Epoch Times | November 30, 2013Last



A report titled “Python Eats Drunk Guy in India” is a hoax–the image has been circulated around the Internet for years and has different content each time.

The latest “report” was circulated by an Indian “financial professional” via Twitter, getting 15,000 retweets over the past several days.

“A Python ate a person who was drunk and lying beside the liquor shop. News from Attapady, Kerala,” it reads.

However, the same image–which shows a large snake with a massive bulge–has been used in purportedly false reports from Indonesia, China, and other countries since at least 2012. It is unclear where the photo originated or what the snake ate.

It’s entirely possible for the snake to have eaten a human, but as About.com urban legends writer David Emery points out, the photo “more likely than not documents a python digesting a goat or a deer.”

Elaborating on the hoax, he wrote: “Depending on which version of the story you read, the overstuffed python above swallowed a drunk guy in India, an unknown woman in South Africa, an unknown man in Qujing, China, a person of unknown gender in Indonesia, or a 4-year-old child in Malaysia.”

Another article that’s getting heavy shares on social media is located on the http://lordsofthedrinks.wordpress.com website.

“When you drink hard, you might find yourself waking up in very strange places. However in some countries it’s quite risky to drink till you drop. A drunk man in India was taking a well-deserved nap outside a liquor store today, when he was discovered by a huge python,” it reads.

It later updated the article, saying “well the comment section is booming. A lot of replies indicate that this post is a hoax. Well, all we can say is that if it is, we didn’t (sic) started it.”

Credible media outlets that have covered the report say its a hoax, but others have been fooled. Russian state-run website Pravda, which was the Communist Party mouthpiece for decades, covered the story, without offering any sources.

There have been very few reports of large snakes eating humans. In South Africa, a 20-foot-long python ate a 10-year-old boy in 2002.

Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia but have thrived in South Florida, namely in the Everglades, and are now considered an invasive species.

A snake ate two cats last month in Florida and another ate an entire deer in 2011 in the Everglades. Earlier this year, a 20-foot-long Python was caught in Florida, weighing in at 128 pounds–the largest python ever caught in the state.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/3788...nyway/?photo=2
 
Old November 30th, 2013 #157
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

[nigeria]

Hospital records rise in snake bite
Premium Times
November 30,2013



A doctor attributed the increase to the farm harvest season.

The number of victims of snake bite has increased in recent times in 10 states in the northern Nigeria, an official has said.

Abubakar Balla, the Medical Officer in Charge of Snake Bite Treatment and Research Centre, Kaltungo, Gombe State, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria in Gombe on Friday.

He attributed the increase to the ongoing farm harvest season in the area.
“On the average, the centre records 10 to 11 patients daily. The hospital wards were designed to contain only 44 patients. At the moment, there are 73 patients in the centre.’’

“People come to the hospital from nine states in the northern part of the country to access treatment.”

“We discharge patients daily and also admit new ones. The situation is pathetic; honestly people need to take precautionary measures”, he said.

Mr. Balla said there was sufficient anti-snake venom for the treatment of all types of snake bite in the hospital.

He appealed to those going to farms for harvest, particularly those for maize, to wear boots, hand gloves, and to hold sticks.

http://premiumtimesng.com/regional/1...nake-bite.html
 
Old November 30th, 2013 #158
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

[california]

New plan gives new life to endangered giant garter snake

By The Record
November 30, 2013 12:00 AM



It should be easier to protect one of the region's creepiest endangered species under a plan announced recently by state officials.

The Department of Water Resources said it is using $4 million in voter-approved bond money to help flood-control agencies from Stockton to Fresno protect the giant garter snake.

The snake is not really giant at all, measuring only about 5 feet long. And it's harmless to humans. We're the ones who have harmed the snake, in fact, by paving over its wetland habitat up and down the Central Valley.

The giant garter snake's home has been split up into little pieces, making it harder for the species to survive. In 2009, a biologist found one of the snakes at an undisclosed location in San Joaquin County, the first such find in 15 years.

The snakes could be further threatened by plans to improve flood protection in the Valley by rebuilding or expanding levees, for example. And that's where the new program comes in.

In the past, the levee agencies have been required to find ways to diminish the harm done by their projects, often by purchasing suitable snake habitat to be preserved someplace else. This case-by-case approach resulted in piecemeal conservation efforts that were expensive and time-consuming, and preserved only very small and isolated pockets of habitat for the snakes.

Now officials have arranged for a giant garter snake "conservation bank" through which builders can purchase credits ahead of time and in bulk, lowering the cost. This will also allow for a larger swath of land to be preserved for the snakes, near the Volta Wildlife Area in Merced County, which houses the largest known breeding population of giant garter snakes in the San Joaquin Valley.

Officials say the new garter snake bank should be large enough to offset any harmful impacts of upcoming flood-control improvement plans along the San Joaquin River.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.d...10/-1/A_NEWS14
 
Old November 30th, 2013 #159
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

Australian Motorists Ambushed by a Monstrous Snake

Gregory Burkart
Thursday, November 28, 2013

In the past, we've spotlighted some of the strange and often terrifying creatures native to Australia (pink monster slugs, spiders that cocoon entire towns, even mythical ape-monsters), but this is the first time we've seen these down-under critters being so damn proactive in terrorizing humans.

The website for Sydney radio station Triple M recently posted this clip showing two travelers who discover a huge red-belly black snake slithering onto their windshield. As you can see, turning on the wipers doesn't help... in fact, it makes things a helluva lot worse.

[Note: NSFW language ahead]


Here's part 2, as the situation gets even more complicated...


- See more at: http://www.fearnet.com/news/news-art....Wc2rPNWg.dpuf
 
Old December 6th, 2013 #160
Jae Manzel
...
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 1,066
Default US drops 2,000 mice on Guam to curb snake population



The US has dropped 2,000 dead mice over Guam in an effort to curb the Pacific island's growing population of invasive snakes.

The mice are stuffed with 80mg of paracetamol, the mild pain medication, which is deadly to brown tree snakes.

The rodents were tied to miniature cardboard parachutes designed to land in branches, where the tree-climbing snakes could easily find them.

Sunday's drop was the fourth aerial delivery of mice to Guam this year.

The programme has cost the United States $8m (£4.8m) annually.

Guam, a US territory, has been an important US military outpost since World War Two.

The brown tree snake, native to northern Australia and Papua New Guinea, first arrived on the island after the war, probably aboard a cargo ship, according to the US geological survey.

Since then, the population has boomed due to abundant prey and few natural predators.

US scientists put the snake population at three million, with some areas containing 13,000 snakes per sq mile.

The snakes are threatening native exotic bird species, as well as costing the Guam Power Authority up to $4m annually in repair costs because they sneak into power stations and cause outages.

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) biologist Dan Vice told the Associated Press news agency the aerial bait may be the best method to combat the snakes without harming other animals.

"The risk to non-targets is slight," Mr Vice said. "It would take 500 baits to kill a pig [and] 15 baits to kill a cat."

The USDA will track the results of the mission through tiny radio devices packed in some of the rodents.

"If it proves to be successful, then we may potentially start ramping up the efforts and doing this on a larger basis across more of Guam," Mr Vice said.

Fears remain that the snakes could migrate to Hawaii, where Mr Vice says their presence could be devastating.

Guam ports currently use specially trained snake-sniffing dogs to detect stowaways.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25247927
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kajtimar View Post
The rest of you are nothing more than a livestock – you were created for us: to serve in that or the other way.
 
Reply

Tags
snakes

Share


Thread
Display Modes


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:28 AM.
Page generated in 1.19771 seconds.